AFRICAN REPTILES 173 



strangling it to death. In zoological parks I 

 have repeatedly seen a python kill an animal 

 by first seizing it in its mouth and, instead of 

 actually coiling about it, catch it in a bend or 

 angle of the body and crush it to death. An 

 Indian python about twenty-six feet long, in the 

 New York Zoological Park, lately devoured a pig 

 that weighed sixty pounds. There is little doubt 

 that an African python twelve feet long might 

 swallow an animal weighing twenty pounds. 



We usually found these big snakes near water, 

 where they were seen lying out on the rocks or 

 on the bank sunning themselves. Aside from 

 startling a person when he first sees or almost 

 steps on one, they are harmless creatures, and 

 when disturbed bolt for water and sink from 

 sight. Their food consists of small antelopes, 

 hares, monkeys, small mammals, and game- 

 birds such as guinea-fowls, spur-fowls, bustards, 

 and francolins. 



Colonel Roosevelt had an amusing and inter- 

 esting experience with the first python he killed. 

 He and Judd were hunting along the bank of a 

 river when one of the gun bearers discovered a 

 python coiled under a tree. The colonel fired 

 and hit it through the back; the snake struck at 



